Sir, – In Sorcha Pollak's interview with a group of young Irish people ("Irish twentysomethings – 'We live in a liberal echo chamber'", Weekend Review, January 14th), one of the interviewees passes, apparently without any trace of irony, from the observation that "many young people are living in a 'liberal echo chamber' where they think everyone wants to repeal the Eighth amendment" to the complaint that "she's still waiting to hear a 'well-balanced argument' from the anti-abortion lobby on why the Eighth amendment . . . should not be repealed".
A little further on, another inrerviewee states: “It was much easier to dismiss any view you like when we had the big conversation about marriage equality, but repealing the Eighth is a human rights issue. I think it’s good that their voices can’t be heard, because this is about human rights.”
Constructive conversation progresses, not by dismissing views with which one disagrees, but by seeking to express convincing arguments against them, in the however forlorn hope that these arguments might be heard. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW CARVILL,
Mallow, Co Cork.